This week on The Middle of Culture, we close out our dive into Transformers with Transformers One, last year’s animated prequel that tells the origin story of Optimus and Megatron. We rave about how shockingly good it is—beautiful animation, heartfelt storytelling, and voice performances that actually make you care about robots punching each other. Along the way, we talk about Sanderson’s declining prose, the “YA-ification” of modern fiction, the decline of mass-market paperbacks, and why we’ll always have a soft spot for dumb robot movies done well.

Episode Notes

Opening Banter

• Peter returns from travel (Boise and Napa), happy to be home.
• Eden vents about a rough week and hostile engineers during digital accessibility training, complete with an on-campus shooting alert mid-meeting.
• Peter describes an incredible dinner at Bistro Jeanty in Napa (truffle deviled eggs, beef bourguignon, and chocolate croissant bread pudding).

Books & Reading

• Peter finishes Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes (yes, the “Piña Colada Song” guy)—a darkly funny and satisfying story about the McMaster’s School of Homicide.
• Reads Artificial Condition, the second Murderbot novella, and starts Write Your Novel from the Middle.
• Discussion on how story structure midpoints define theme and cohesion.
• Critique of Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth: great worldbuilding, but noticeably weaker prose since losing his longtime editor.
• Eden speculates that the issue might extend to the whole fantasy industry—less editing, more aesthetic consumerism, and the death of the mass-market paperback.
• Broader talk on the “dumbing down” of fiction and the rise of YA and “New Adult” markets catering to comfort rather than challenge.

Music & Games Corner

• Peter dives into rediscovering Psychotic Waltz, Psychonaut, and Oramet—bands that balance progressive creativity with restraint.
• New release highlight: PowerWash Simulator 2.
• Eden tests two disappointing gacha games (Duet Night Abyss and Resonance Solstice) and finally uninstalls all HoyoVerse titles.
• Back to Final Fantasy XIV, excited about the new patch allowing full cross-class glamours.

Main Feature – Transformers One (2024)

• Both agree: it’s the best Transformers movie ever made—heartfelt, gorgeously animated, and genuinely emotional.
• Plot rundown: Orion Pax (Optimus) and D16 (Megatron) rise from the oppressed underclass of “Cogless” robots, uncover Sentinel Prime’s corruption, and witness the birth of Autobot vs. Decepticon ideology.
• Core theme: friendship, betrayal, and revolution—the tragedy of two friends who believe in justice but choose different paths.
• Voice acting highlights:
  • Brian Tyree Henry’s nuanced Megatron is phenomenal.
  • John Hamm nails the duplicitous Sentinel Prime.
  • Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth have real chemistry, even if Hemsworth is the weakest link.
  • Laurence Fishburne brings gravitas as Alpha Trion.
  • Keegan-Michael Key’s Bumblebee is purposefully annoying but fits the tone.
• Praise for the movie’s subtle callbacks to the 1986 film (“You don’t have the touch or the power”), strong emotional beats, and sense of earned tragedy.
• Both lament how poorly it performed at the box office—“we are part of the problem”—and hope it gets a sequel.
• Brief detour comparing the animated film’s depth to the shallow chaos of the Michael Bay series.

Closing Thoughts

• Transformers One feels like the first time the franchise truly understood its own heart.
• Recommendation: watch it—it’s smart, emotional, and fun as hell.

In this week’s Middle of Culture, we dive deep into our usual blend of media obsession and existential humor — from the strange delights of villainess light novels and the chaos of gacha games to Tron Ares, which Eden declares “not a good movie… but maybe the best Tron movie.” Peter shares his thoughts on new music from Conjurer and Author & Punisher, reviews Wind and Truth with mixed feelings, and outlines a possible new nonfiction project exploring the moral dehumanization of healthcare. We close by revisiting the bizarre early UK Transformers comics — where Optimus is kind of a jerk, Starscream becomes the original “catty traitor,” and Brawn looks like he escaped a Dollar Tree toy aisle.

Episode Notes:

Opening Banter:

• Eden introduces herself as “so eeppy,” prompting Peter to admit defeat against internet slang.
• The two reflect on “functional depression,” aging, and surviving the current “hellscape.

Eden’s Media Fixation:

• Revisits I’m in Love with the Villainess and praises it as one of the best isekai series ever.
• Explains Prison Life is Easy for a Villainess, a meta comedy about a villainess treating dungeon time as a spa retreat.
• Attends a PowerPoint Party and presents “Villainess as Protagonist: A Meta-Analysis of Current Media Trends.”

Gacha Game Roundup:

• Stella Sora: “What if Hades was slower and shittier?” Deleted after 45 minutes.
• Chaos Zero Nightmare: Required two launchers — instant nope.
• Duet Night Abyss: Promising Warframe-style action without predatory gacha.

Tron Ares Review:

• Eden: “Not a good movie… but maybe the best Tron movie.”
• Praises its Nine Inch Nails soundtrack and stunning action; mocks Jared Leto’s acting.
• Peter admits he’d watch all three Tron films once they’re streaming.

Peter’s Media Corner:

• Music: Revisits Testament’s Parabellum, discovers Author & Punisher, and praises Conjurer’s Unself.
• Reading: Finishes Wind and Truth, critiques Sanderson’s editing, starts Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes, and begins Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe.
• Discusses a new nonfiction concept: “Connecting to Purpose: The Moral Dehumanization of Healthcare in America.”

Ideological Detour:

• Eden: “If you’re not the owner, you’re being exploited.”
• Peter admits he’s “becoming radicalized.”

Transformers (UK Comics):

• Recap of the lost “Man of Iron” episode and this week’s The Enemy Within.
• Discovery: This is possibly where “catty, traitorous Starscream” was born.
• Braun’s design roasted as “the Dollar Tree Transformer.”
• Optimus Prime called “a dick” for sending Brawn and Starscream into gladiator combat.
• Praise for Ravage and nostalgia for our childhood toys.

Closing:

• Eden confesses to spending $100 on the new Missing Link R.C. figure — “worth every penny.”
• Episode ends with a reminder to subscribe, share, and leave a review.

This week, we dive headfirst into emotional ruin — courtesy of Look Back, the devastatingly beautiful anime film by Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. Before we get our hearts ripped out, we unpack a flood of new music releases — including Testament’s Para Bellum and Fayle's haunting Heretics and Lullabies — rail against Microsoft’s Game Pass price hike, and talk streaming fatigue and piracy. Peter also shares his new plan to train like a writer-athlete with a three-month learning sprint, while Eden reviews Nine Inch Nails’ Tron: Ares soundtrack, gushes about Apothecary Diaries, and explains why a Regency “choose your own adventure” romance might be the most fun book they’ve read all month. It all ends with tears, cello music, and a haunting meditation on why we create art in the first place.

📝 Episode Notes

Intro

• The “lost” episode vanished into the ether — maybe because it was too powerful for the far right to handle.
• Both hosts are feeling post-busy-season burnout and existential malaise.

Music Corner

• 🚨 Rush Reunion Tour: With Neil Peart’s family’s blessing, Rush returns with drummer Anika Nilles.
  • Eden: “Neil was never the fastest.”
  • Peter: Debates whether to travel for the tour or keep his memories intact.
• 🎻 Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Lifeblood: Beautiful, emotive cello-driven prog from the Leprous collaborator.
• ⚡️ Testament – Parabellum: Experimental thrash with black, death, and groove elements.
• 🕯 Frayle – Heretics and Lullabies: October-perfect doom — haunting vocals and atmosphere. Peter’s album of the month.

Gaming & Streaming Rant

• Microsoft’s Game Pass price jump to $30/month = cancellation time.
• Broader discussion: streaming bloat, rising costs, and the rise of “ethical piracy.”
• Quote of the section: “You wouldn’t scrape all the art ever made to create an anime titty generator.”

Writing & Learning Sprint

• Peter’s “Three-Month Learning Sprint” inspired by Dave Perell’s athlete model of skill-building.
• October–December: studying the craft of novel writing before starting Book #4 in January.
• Reading Save the Cat! Writes a Novel (Jessica Brody) and joining Writing Mastery Academy.
• Reflections on learning structure, story beats, and wanting to finally write a novel he’d let others read.
• Eden debates joining NaNoWriMo again… maybe.

Eden’s Media & Reading Corner

• 🎬 Tron: Ares (2024): “No one’s seeing it — and for good reason.”
  • Weak Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, but still better than most.
• 📚 Apothecary Diaries — finished all 15 volumes.
• 🐀 Though I Am an Inept Villainess — courtly fantasy with body-swap hijinks and fried potatoes.
• ❤️ My Lady’s Choosing — a hilarious, Regency-era, choose-your-own-romance adventure.
• 🕹 Doll’s Nest — “What if Armored Core, Dark Souls, and Frame Arms Girls had a baby?”

Main Event — Look Back

• 58-minute emotional gut punch about art, friendship, and loss.
• Recap: child prodigies Fujino and Kyomoto become artistic partners, drift apart, tragedy strikes, and grief reignites creation.
• Themes: rivalry, purpose, creative identity, and the way art bridges life and death.
• Peter: “The moment that cello started playing, I knew this was going to fuck me up.”
• Discussion on Fujimoto’s tone shifts, showing vs. telling, and the balance of subtlety and brutality.
• Shared conclusion: gorgeous, devastating, and they’ll never watch it again.

Wrap-Up

• Look Back is available on Amazon Prime.
• Next episode in a couple of weeks.
• Sign-off reminder: leave a review and email feedback@themiddleofculture.com

Peter and Eden cover a whirlwind couple of weeks—family milestones, stressful schedules, and the search for meaning outside of work—before diving into media updates like Escaflone, In Mourning’s crushing new album, and the delightfully cursed Ice Cube–starring War of the Worlds (2025). From there, things spiral into chaos with a marathon of “Would You Rather?” questions that range from the silly to the philosophical, including fart announcements, glitter burps, pinky-finger super strength, and whether you’d rather have a South Park wedding or a Family Guy funeral. It’s the most chaotic fun you’ll have all week.

Episode Notes

Life updates:

• Peter’s son Alex returns from his mission and prepares for a wedding.
• The challenge of balancing work, family, and downtime.
• Reflections on identity outside of your career.

Media check-ins:

• Peter on Tiny Experiments and the joy of learning Final Cut Pro.
• New music: The Immortal by In Mourning, and “End of You” with Amy Lee, Poppy, and Courtney LaPlante.
• Eden’s anime binge: Azumanga Daioh (finished), Escaflone (technical mishaps + stationary bike viewing).
• Bad Movie Bros watch: War of the Worlds (2025) starring Ice Cube—possibly the worst movie ever made.
• Manga spotlight: Yoritama: From Third Wheel to Trifecta (romantic chaos).

Main Event: Would You Rather?

• Pajamas vs. tuxedos, freakishly big mouths vs. tiny noses.
• Public fart announcements vs. peeing your pants.
• Superpowers you don’t want: invisibility only when sneezing, pinky-only super strength, screaming flight.
• Food fiascos: pizza hands vs. donut feet, glitter burps vs. bubble hiccups.
• Social nightmares: every text to mom vs. marching band of lies.
• Philosophical turns: 20 years with no regrets vs. 100 with many.
• The ultimate cursed choice: South Park wedding or Family Guy funeral.

This week Eden and Peter dive into William Friedkin’s gritty 1977 thriller Sorcerer, a tense and sweat-soaked remake of The Wages of Fear. They talk through the film’s nihilistic worldview, Friedkin’s unrelenting direction, and Tangerine Dream’s eerie score that pushes the movie into fever-dream territory. Along the way, they share personal stories of how the film lingered in memory for decades, debate whether Sorcerer deserved its original flop status, and marvel at the sheer intensity of the bridge sequence. They also connect the film to broader cultural legacies—from the shadow of Star Wars to the way cult classics find redemption years later.

Show Notes
Opening catch-up

• Summer weather updates and life events.
• Peter finishes Donkey Kong Bonanza and shares thoughts on Taskmaster series 7 vs 8.
• Music chat: new Deftones (Private Music), Testament’s upcoming Parabellum, and the death of Mastodon’s Brett Hinds.

Work & reading tangents

• Eden’s deep dive into accessibility struggles with LaTeX, Pandoc, and PDFs (“the world’s worst file format”).
• Reading The Apothecary Diaries and Azumanga Daioh; comparisons with Nichijo and City.
• Listening to Tangerine Dream’s catalog and soundtrack prep for the film.

Imperfect Practice launch

• Peter introduces his new blog and YouTube channel, “Imperfect Practice,” focused on experiments with productivity, journaling, and workflows.

Main Event: Sorcerer

• Eden’s blind pick, Peter’s buried childhood memory of the Tangerine Dream LP, and initial impressions.
• Full plot breakdown with detailed discussion of:
  • The four opening vignettes.
  • Building the trucks and loading unstable dynamite.
  • The infamous 12-minute bridge sequence.
  • The brutal downer ending and themes of fate and nihilism.
• Discussion of the title Sorcerer (why it’s terrible, Friedkin’s explanation).
• Behind-the-scenes misery, budget overruns, and authenticity (actors did most of their own stunts).
• The soundtrack’s role in creating alienation and tension.
• Release woes: arriving weeks after Star Wars and being critically panned before decades-later reevaluation into cult-classic canon.

Wrap-up

• Reflections on its heavy but unforgettable impact.

Links
Imperfect Practice
Imperfect Practice on YouTube

What starts as a simple dive into media tracking apps quickly spirals into tangents about puzzles from hell, glamping with bison and mustangs, fistfights with Satan in Pittsburgh, and the glory days of scrobbling music. Along the way, Peter and Eden hash out their very different relationships with games, books, music, and movies—and why, at the end of the day, “the juice is not worth the squeeze” when it comes to tracking everything we consume.

Opening catch-up:

• Eden returns from travel and vents about the oppressive Midwestern humidity.
• Eden recounts a cursed puzzle vacation and a surreal HipCamp adventure that included glamping in a bus, staying at a mustang ranch, and hearing a wild coma story involving battling Satan.
• A detour into mobile gaming: Eden introduces the absurd yet addictive horse girl racing game Uma Musume.
• Peter shares his ongoing love for Taskmaster, Donkey Kong Bonanza on the Switch 2, and recent reading progress (Wind and Truth, Tiny Experiments).
• Music talk:
  • New releases from Carbomb, Abigail Williams, and Blackbraid.
  • Remembering Eric Wunder of Cobalt, with Peter realizing Slow Forever might be his true desert island album.

Main Topic: Media tracking apps and services.

• Video games: Eden dabbled with Backloggd but finds it too much work; Peter doesn’t see the appeal beyond Steam’s built-in history.
• Books: Eden logs reads in a notebook; Peter wrestles with StoryGraph, Hardcover, and Goodreads but finds the friction too high. Notion experiments fail; AI-summarized notes for nonfiction survive.
• Music: Nostalgia for scrobbling and Last.fm; frustrations with Spotify, Apple Music, and Plex setups. Peter praises Plexamp and Rune; Eden experiments with Cloud Beats and dreams of a NAS.
• Movies/TV: Eden dislikes fragmented platforms; Peter mentions using Sequel lightly but relies most on Call Sheet, an IMDb alternative. Eden uses League of Comic Geeks only to track physical comics in his collection.

Closing thoughts: both agree that while tracking can be tempting, talking to people and communities is a far more rewarding way to discover new media.

In this episode, Eden and Peter dive into Fantastic Four: First Steps, a surprisingly hopeful and aesthetically stunning addition to the MCU. They unpack the film’s utopian vision, its fresh take on superhero storytelling, and why it might be one of Marvel’s most emotionally resonant efforts to date. From retrofuturist aesthetics to character depth and non-violent resolutions, they explore how this movie dares to imagine a better world—and why that makes it so special.

Episode Show Notes:

Catching up: Peter’s travel chaos, shaving disasters, and reading Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Reflections on creativity, late-stage capitalism, and the need for exploration and failure
Eden breaks down the odd digital logic of Japanese fantasy novels and the legacy of Dragon Quest
A detour into Star Wars Galaxies Restoration and its refreshing take on MMO life and Jedi origins

Main topic: Fantastic Four: First Steps

• Both hosts loved the movie and were surprised by how well it worked
• The mid-century retrofuturist aesthetic is a standout success
• The characters feel fully-formed and lived-in—no drawn-out origin story
• Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) emerges as the true heart and leader of the team
• Emphasis on creativity and intelligence over brute force
• A rare example of superheroes making the world better, not just protecting the status quo
• The story’s utopian tone sets it apart from typical superhero narratives
• Franklin Richards’ birth and future teased with major power implications
• Galactus and the Silver Surfer are compelling and visually stunning additions
• A shared sense of optimism and trust among the characters and the world
• Some minor nitpicks (Ben Grimm’s beard?) but overall glowing praise
• Post-credits Doom tease? Who cares.
• Nervousness about Avengers: Doomsday expectations
• Final thoughts: a hopeful, human, and character-driven superhero film that stands out

Episode Summary

This week on The Middle of Culture, Peter and Eden dive into Superman 2025—a movie they both expected to disappoint, but ultimately left them grinning. They discuss why this version of Superman finally understands the character, their favorite portrayals (hello, Nicholas Hoult’s Lex), and the messy charm of a movie that somehow pulls off being packed without tipping over. Along the way, they touch on camping with CPAPs, ADHD and habit formation, cello-driven metal, and why The Office still sucks. It’s a jam-packed, joyful takedown and celebration of what might be DC’s best swing in years.

Episode Notes

• Peter and Eden open with summer updates, including swim meets and car camping (aka “carmping”)
• Eden reviews the anime adaptation of City, praising Kyoto Animation’s hand-drawn excellence
• Discussion on ADHD and the reality of habit formation—Peter shares how journaling became a daily routine, while Eden relies on yelling reminder apps
• Peter recommends cello virtuoso Raphael Weinroth-Browne and shares excitement over new music from Paradise Lost
• A shared hatred of The Office and a love for Taskmaster
• Peter recounts his guest appearance on The Incomparable’s “Random Pursuit” episode

Main discussion: Superman 2025

• Initial low expectations gave way to genuine enjoyment
• Both agree: it finally gets Superman right—his compassion, moral compass, and fallibility
• Highlights include Nicholas Hoult’s intense, bitter Lex Luthor and Brosnahan’s sharp Lois Lane
• Critiques: missing Clark Kent moments, underused Daily Planet characters, weak soundtrack
• Praise for standout moments like the Kansas farm scene and Mr. Terrific’s mysterious cool
• Fun digs into comics lore with Guy Gardner, Hawk Girl, and Jimmy Olsen’s inexplicable ladykiller status
• Comparison to Thunderbolts (still the best superhero movie of the year so far) and some worry over Fantastic Four
• Wrap-up with Eden ready to rewatch Superman 1978 and wishing this one had a better name

Links:
Uncanny Magazine Year 12 Kickstarter
Random Pursuit on The Incomparable Game Show